VOLUME 51 PART 2 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM BRISBANE 31 DECEMBER 2005 © Queensland Museum PO Box 3300, South Brisbane 4101, Australia Phone 06 7 3840 7555 Fax 06 7 3846 1226 Email [email protected] Website www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au National Library of Australia card number ISSN 0079-8835 NOTE Papers published in this volume and in all previous volumes of the Memoirs of the Queensland Museum may be reproduced for scientific research, individual study or other educational purposes. Properly acknowledged quotations may be made but queries regarding the republication of any papers should be addressed to the Director. Copies of the journal can be purchased from the Queensland Museum Shop. A Guide to Authors is displayed at the Queensland Museum web site www.qmuseum.qld.gov.au/resources/resourcewelcome.html A Queensland Government Project Typeset at the Queensland Museum FIRST RECORDS OF THE FALSE CATSHARK, PSEUDOTRIAKIS MICRODON CAPELLO, 1868, FROM THE WATERS OF EASTERN AUSTRALIA AND INDONESIA PETER M. KYNE, JEFFREY W. JOHNSON, WILLIAM T. WHITE AND MICHAEL B. BENNETT Kyne, P.M., Johnson, J.W., White, W.T. & Bennett, M.B. 2005 12 31: First records of the false catshark, Pseudotriakis microdon Capello, 1868, from the waters of eastern Australia and Indonesia. Memoirs of the Queensland Museum 51(2): 525-530. Brisbane. ISSN 0079-8835. A new specimen of a rare deepwater chondrichthyan, the false catshark Pseudotriakis microdon Capello, 1868 is documented from the Coral Sea. This represents the first record of the species from off the east coast of Australia and only the second from Australian waters. The specimen, a 277cm total length (TL) mature male, was captured by exploratory deepwater dropline at a depth of 350m on 03/02/2004. Morphometrics are presented and compared to other published accounts. A further individual, a 287cm TL mature female captured by bottom longline operating at depths of 100–150m around Sawu, Dana and Raijua Islands, southeastern Indonesia, is documented from fish landing sites in Lombok, Indonesia. This individual was not retained and only its sex, maturity and TL were recorded. It represents the first record of P.microdon for Indonesia and for the northeast Indian Ocean. These specimens increase the known range of this rare, sporadically recorded, but widely distributed chondrichthyan. o Carcharhiniformes, Pseudotriakidae, Queensland waters, Indonesia. P.M. Kyne and M.B. Bennett. School of Biomedical Sciences, Department of Anatomy and Developmental Biology, University of Queensland, St. Lucia, Queensland 4072, Australia; J.W. Johnson, Ichthyology, Queensland Museum, PO Box 3300 South Brisbane, Queensland 4101, Australia; W.T. White. Centre for Fish and Fisheries Research, Murdoch University, Murdoch, WA 6150, Australia [e-mail: [email protected]]; 10 August 2004. The false catshark Pseudotriakis microdon off Japan from Honshu to Okinawa Islands Capello, 1868 (Carcharhiniformes: Pseudo- (Jordan & Snyder, 1904; Taniuchi et al., 1984; triakidae) is a possibly cosmopolitan deepwater Yano, 1992) and Taiwan (see Chen, 1963); and, elasmobranch, however, it is sporadically southwest Pacific, Three Kings Ridge, recorded and its complete distribution remains Challenger Plateau and Hikurangi Trough (east unclear. The false catshark is benthic, primarily of Mahia Peninsula) New Zealand (Stewart & on the continental and insular slopes at depths of Clark, 1988; Yano, 1992; Stewart, 2000). The 200-1,900m, but can occasionally occur on the species has not been recorded from either the continental shelf (Bigelow & Schroeder, 1948; southern Atlantic or the eastern Pacific, and it is Compagno, 1984; Baranes, 2003). Most records most likely that it is more widely distributed than are from the Northern Hemisphere, and the presently documented. species appears to be rarer, or more rarely Pseudotriakis Capello, 1868 is a monospecific encountered, in the Southern Hemisphere. It has genus, characterised by its large adult size, previously been recorded from the northwest soft-body, cat-like eyes and nictitating eyelids, Atlantic, off Canada (Gilhen & Coad, 1999) and large spiracles, wide angular mouth extending New York to New Jersey (Bigelow & Schroeder, posterior to the eye, two large spineless dorsal 1948); northeast and eastern central Atlantic fins, the first low, extended and keel-like, an anal from the Atlantic slope off Iceland, France, fin, numerous extremely small cuspidate teeth Portugal, Madeira, Azores to Senegal and the ($200 rows in each jaw), no precaudal pits, and Cape Verde Islands (see Compagno, 1984; an asymmetrical caudal fin (Compagno, 1984; 1988); western Indian, Aldabra Island, 1988). Jordan & Snyder (1904) recognised Cosmoledo Island and Geyser Reef (Forster et Pseudotriakis acrales (from the Atlantic) as al., 1970) and the Amirantes Islands, Seychelles distinct from P. microdon (from the Pacific) (Baranes, 2003); eastern Indian, off Cape however numerous authors (see Compagno, Leeuwin, Western Australia (Allen & Cowan, 1988 for an account) could not find any 1995); central Pacific, Hawaiian Islands (Crow et characters to reliably separate the two species and al., 1996); northwest Pacific, various localities 526 MEMOIRS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM FIG.1. Pseudotriakis microdon QM I.34963. Lateral view of whole specimen. The first dorsal fin is not visible in the photograph. (Photo: Jeff Wright). tentatively placed P.acrales in synonymy with P. QM, Queensland Museum, Brisbane; WAM, microdon. Yano & Musick (1992) confirmed this Western Australian Museum, Perth. synonymy with morphometric analysis, The Indonesian individual was observed concluding that characters used to separate the during surveys of the chondrichthyan catches at species change allometrically as suggested by the fish landing site of Tanjung Luar on the Compagno (1988). The Pseudotriakidae also eastern side of the island of Lombok in includes Gollum Compagno, 1973; the two southeastern Indonesia. Sex, maturity and TL genera being readily distinguished by the height were recorded, but no morphometric of the first dorsal fin. In Gollum the first dorsal fin measurements were taken and the specimen was is about the same size as, and is roughly equal in not retained due to the remote location of the find. height to, the second dorsal fin (Compagno, 1973), whilst in Pseudotriakis the low, keel-like RESULTS first dorsal fin is much lower than the second A 277cm TL mature male P. microdon (QM dorsal fin. Gollum attenuatus (Garrick, 1954), I.34963) (Fig. 1) was captured by deepwater the sole member of the genus, is endemic to New multi-hook demersal dropline off the southwest Zealand (Compagno, 1988). side of Calder Reef, Coral Sea (~20°51' S, Here we present the first record of P. microdon 153E13' E) at 350m depth on 03/02/2004. The from the east coast of Australia and the second individual was taken by an exploratory known specimen from Australian waters, commercial fishing vessel targeting a broad together with the first record from Indonesia and range of deepwater reef fishes including flame the northeast Indian Ocean. and ruby snapper (Etelis spp.) and bar cod (Epinephelus spp.). Table 1 presents METHODS morphometrics for the Australian specimen, as The Australian specimen was frozen and well as the range of values for the 56 transported to the Queensland Museum where it measurements given in Yano & Musick (1992). was examined prior to being fixed in formalin. A 287cm TL mature female P. microdon (Fig. Eighty-five morphometrics were recorded for the 2) was observed and photographed at the fish new specimen, including the 56 measurements landing site of Tanjung Luar on the eastern side presented in Yano & Musick (1992). of the island of Lombok, southeastern Indonesia Abbreviations and methods for measurements on 08/09/2004 by a joint Australian-Indonesian follow Compagno (2001), except those for the team conducting fish market surveys. The first dorsal fin length (D1L) and first dorsal fin individual was captured by demersal longline base length (D1B) which follow that of Yano & fishers targeting sharks (e.g. large carcharhinids Musick (1992). Morphometrics were compared and Hexanchus griseus (Bonnaterre, 1788)). No with those given in Yano & Musick (1992). The precise locality data was obtained, however the following abbreviations are used for institutions: fishers are known to operate only around the TABLE 1 (facing). Pseudotriakis microdon QM I34963, 2770mm TL. Proportional dimensions as percentages of total length, with comparison to values given in Yano & Musick (1992) where appropriate. Abbreviations follow Compagno (2001). Numbers in parentheses are those used for measurements by Yano & Musick (1992). * denotes proportional measurements for QM I.34963 which fall outside the range in Yano & Musick (1992). NEW RECORDS OF PSEDOTRIAKIS MICRODON 527 TL (mm) 2770 Proportional Yano & Musick Proportional Yano & Musick Measurement dimension (1992) range Measurement dimension (1992) range (%TL) (%TL) (%TL) (%TL) PRN (1) 4.15 2.61-4.79 D1B (32) 26.71 15.45-36.34 POB (2) 5.31 3.73-7.31 D1P (33) 11.37 4.89-14.64 PSP (3) 8.56 7.39-12.16 D1H (34) 5.23* 2.25-3.91 POR (4) 4.58 2.72-6.53 D1A 14.44 - PG1 (5) 14.80 12.02-19.02 D1I 1.44 - PG2 16.34 - D2L (35) 15.16 11.88-16.49 PG3 (6) 17.36 14.86-21.68 D2B (36) 12.20 9.96-15.05 PG4 18.33 - D2P (37) 8.12 4.31-8.81 PG5 (7) 19.15 16.13-23.52 D2H (38) 7.29 4.48-7.65 PP1 (8) 18.95 16.00-23.11 D2A 13.54 - PP2 (9) 56.25 50.69-56.44 D2I 2.96 - SVL (10) 59.21 54.66-60.93 ANL (39) 11.37* 8.59-11.04 PD1 (11) 29.60